The federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), part of the U.S. Justice Department, plans to award $3.5 million for an evaluation of the effectiveness of youth mentoring programs in preventing juvenile delinquency.

"While mentoring appears to be a promising intervention for disadvantaged youth, more evaluation work is needed to determine the components of a mentoring program that are necessary for bringing about positive youth development," according to the agency. "OJJDP seeks proposals to evaluate the effectiveness of paid versus volunteer mentors within an existing mentoring program. The evaluator will conduct both a process and an outcome evaluation measuring the success of both paid and volunteer mentor programs in preventing delinquency."

The OJJDP FY 09 Mentoring Research Program is open to nonprofits, colleges and universities, and government agencies. Application deadline is June 2.

For more details, see the full grant announcement online.